Travel notebook

Staten Island wheel

The Associated Press

An artist's rendering of a proposed 625-foot Ferris wheel, billed as the world's largest, planned as part of a retail and hotel complex along the Staten Island waterfront in New York. The attraction, called the New York Wheel, will cost $230 million. Officials say the observation wheel will be higher than the Singapore Flyer, the London Eye, and a "High Roller" wheel planned in Las Vegas. Beyond the wheel is the Manhattan skyline.

The Big Apple is getting another “biggest” — the world’s tallest Ferris wheel. The 625-foot-tall New York Wheel is to grace a spot in Staten Island overlooking the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline and sweep higher than other big wheels like the Singapore Flyer, the London Eye and a “High Roller” planned for Las Vegas. Designed to carry 1,440 passengers at a time, it’s expected to draw 4.5 million people a year to a setting that also would include a 100-shop outlet mall and a 200-room hotel.

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt.

Toronto airline will carry

more skiers to Vermont

A Toronto-based airline will expand its seasonal service to Vermont during the ski season. Porter Airlines will offer four round trip flights weekly between Toronto and Burlington starting Dec. 15, up from two weekly flights last season. The flights will be offered on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

BARRIE, Ont.

Fall colour season at its peak

in Ontario’s Agawa Canyon

The fall colour season is well underway, the Ontario Travel Centre reports. Leaves in the Sault Ste. Marie and Algoma region offer a “kaleidoscope of colour” with the Agawa Canyon area at peak, full colour. Also showing peak colours is the Highway 60 corridor in the Algonquin Park area. The Collingwood area is reporting nice pockets of colour and the Owen Sound area has advanced to a 60-per-cent change with areas of vibrant red and orange. The beautiful Elora Gorge north of Guelph now has pockets of yellow and gold, with about a 40-per-cent colour change. Just the odd tree is starting to turn along the Lake Huron shoreline. Fall colour studio tours are popular, the centre says. This weekend’s arts and crafts lineup includes the Elora Fergus Studio Tour, the Autumn Leaves Studio Tour in Grey County, the Caledon Hills Studio Adventure and, closer to home, the Mary Allen Studio Tour in Waterloo.

PARIS

Louvre Museum opens wing

devoted to Islamic art

In its boldest development in a generation, the Louvre Museum has a new $130-million wing dedicated to Islamic art. The new galleries are seen as a way to help bridge cultural divides. Still, one of the Louvre’s own consultants acknowledged some Muslims could be “shocked” by three images of Muhammad with his face exposed in the new wing. Many Muslims believe the Prophet should not be depicted at all. The galleries are housed under a futuristic, undulating glass roof designed by architects Rudy Ricciotti and Mario Bellini. It marks the Louvre’s biggest change since architect I.M. Pei’s iconic glass pyramid opened in 1989.

AMSTERDAM

Van Gogh Museum

closes for renovations

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has closed for renovations and 75 works by the artists, including Sunflowers, Irises and the famously crooked Bedroom, have been moved to a temporary location across town. For the next seven months they will be on display at The Hermitage, an Amsterdam dependency of the Russian state museum. The Van Gogh Museum is Amsterdam’s most popular, attracting 1.6 million visitors in 2011 — eclipsing both the Rembrandt-rich Rijksmuseum and the Anne Frank House museum. The Van Gogh Museum is expected to reopen on April 25, 2013.

DALLAS

Exhibit will feature art

from Kennedy hotel room

On the morning of Nov. 22, 1963, U.S. president John F. Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy awoke to realize their Fort Worth hotel suite had an extraordinary array of artwork — from a painting by Vincent van Gogh to a bronze by Pablo Picasso. Several prominent Fort Worth citizens had hurriedly gathered 12 paintings and four sculptures for the suite in the days leading up to the president’s fateful Texas visit. Next year, almost all of the works that the couple admired in their last private moments before the president was assassinated in Dallas will be displayed to help commemorate the 50th anniversary of his death. Hotel Texas: An Art Exhibition for the President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy will open at the Dallas Museum of Art on May 26, 2013.

PHILADELPHIA

Pizza museum has photos, knick-knacks . . . and pizza

How much does Brian Dwyer love pizza? He holds the Guinness World Record for largest collection of pizza memorabilia, he has a caricature of himself eating pizza tattooed on his back, and he is the driving force behind Pizza Brain, which he calls the first U.S. pizza museum. Part art gallery, part eatery, it’s a place to enjoy a slice or two of artisan pie while gawking at pizza-related photos, records, knick-knacks and videos. Hundreds of people turned out for the Sept. 7 grand opening in Philadelphia’s Fishtown neighbourhood.